The Changeling Saga
by Eoin Maloney
Summary: Sean Quinn-Hayashi, an Irish teenager, learns of his half-breed past as a changeling. He must avoid blood-thirsty monsters, and mad faeries, while trying to get a simple education.


_[Hello, I'm here to tell a story. I'm making a few assumptions about how Rosario+Vampire actually ended, but it likely won't really figure in until the manga has already ended. As I'm sure you know from the description, this story, while set in the same universe, is not about Tsukune et. al. It will certainly hold many elements from the original stories, an unwanted harem, a protagonist unused to the world of the youkai, and all sorts of those weird, nasty beasties you love. Please do review, as I welcome constructive criticism. Enjoy!]_

* * *

_Our story begins with our protagonist, one young man by the name of Sean Quinn-Hayashi_, standing at a bus stop in his hometown of Ōta, a city a short way from Tokyo. When I say "hometown," I mean it in the loosest sense, i.e., "the town that is his home." He is, quite obviously, not Japanese, simply by his name, before you note his tousled bronze hair, or his blue-green eyes. Those, or that he stands at about 185 cm, certainly taller than most of the people around him. He got picked on a lot, of course, for being the reedy, freckled strawberry (strawberry being the somewhat derogatory vernacular for redhead around those parts). He shrugged at it most of the time. The shrug was his most vital defense. He was nervous, as his parents had, without warning, enrolled him in a school he had never heard of. Well, Almost no warning.

The bus approached from down the road.

About a week before, a letter had come in the mail that was the source of a forceful argument between his mother and step-father. He couldn't hear the specifics, but he did gather something of lying, and the term "whore." He would have taken issue with that, but Mr. Hayashi is not one to argue with.

The bus slowed to a stop and the door opened. The man in the seat, a tall, gaunt man with a cold, dominating gaze, turned and cleared his throat. At that moment, Sean snapped out of his thoughts and stepped on the bus, nodding to the bus driver and sitting next to the only other rider, a brown-haired girl, who seemed to be 15, about his age. She was taller than most her age, but not excessively so. She had pale brown eyes, almost yellow, and was certainly shapelier than most girls her age would be, as well.

"Alright, next stop, Youkai Academy," The Driver grunted as the door closed and the bus sputtered back to life.

"A strange name, 'Youkai Academy'," Sean muttered to himself.

"I don't know what you mean," The girl next to him replied.

"Hm? Oh, excuse me, I just thought it was odd, the name of our school."

"How is it odd?" the girl asked.

"Oh, well, unless I'm mistaken, the Kanji on the letter I received would be 'Youkai' as in supernatural creatures," Sean answered.

"Well, we certainly won't be learning smelting," the girl retorted. To elaborate, "Youkai" is a term for supernatural thing, as stated, but it also sounds like the word for smelting.

Sean raised an eyebrow, faced forward and shrugged. That shrug held back a horrific realization.

"My name, if you want to know it, is Yuki."

"Hm? Oh, yes, my name is Sean."

"You aren't Japanese, are you," she stated more than asked.

"No, I am not."

"Students, we are now entering the tunnel to the Youkai world. Please fasten your seat belts," the Driver proclaimed.

"Mr. Driver, there aren't any seat belts," Yuki answered.

"Oops," the Driver chuckled as they entered a multicolored tunnel with a jerk

Sean, who was considering going to sleep, jerked up and looked out the window. He assumed he was dreaming and slouched back down.

When they reached the school, the Driver opened the door and gestured out. "Welcome," he said, "to Youkai Academy."

As the two walked quietly out of the bus, the Driver whispered in Sean's ear, "Watch out, Sean, kids can be real killers."

* * *

_Sean and Yuki split paths, if only for the time being, to report to their homeroom, not realizing that they shared one._ They both arrived, and in a moment, the bell rang. A perky woman with very narrow eyes stood at the front of class with a piece of chalk in her hand.

"Hello class, I am Ms. Nekonome, and I will be your homeroom teacher. As you all know, this is a school for supernatural creatures. Before we begin, I have been instructed to tell you the rules for this school. First, as this school is intended to teach you to live among humans, you must stay in your human forms whenever possible. Second, with _very few_ exceptions," Nekonome looked side to side for a moment, "Humans are not permitted to enter here. Those of you with human parents are permitted to have them visit at open house..." Nekonome continued for a time, while the gears slowly began turning in Sean's head.

He looked around, and noticed one of the students had thin wisps of smoke floating up from their nostrils. Another had catlike slits for pupils. The teacher had a tail!

_Huh. A tail._ Sean thought.

Sean continued taking notes of the school rules.

_A tail! A literal tail!_

"Holy gahddem feck, _this is__ a supernatural school!_" He shouted in English with an Irish brogue. Thankfully, nobody in the room was fluent in English enough to realize that he was being obscene, and just assumed he was an idiot.

"Mr., eh, Quinn-Hayashi? Are you alright?" Nekonome paused. She didn't want any squirrely behavior, especially after her past classes.

"Hm? Oh, me? Oh, yes of course, teacher, I, just, uh, sat on a pin," Sean tried not to panic. Yuki, two seats back, raised an eyebrow.

* * *

_Throughout the day, Sean was about to lose his mind, or convinced he already had._ He shuddered at the Gorgon with dreads two desks away in math. He shied away from his fork-tongued lab partner in chemistry. He nearly wet himself when somebody said "anybody smell human?"

He finally made it through class. His plan was to scurry to his dorm room, try to get some reception on his cell phone, and call his mother. As he walked into the dormitories, he noted that there were a lot of girls.

_Heh,_ he thought_, wouldn'ave expected co-ed dorms._

As he came upon his room, room 221B, he breathed a sigh of relief. At last, he could sort out this horrible mistake and/or terrifying hallucination. He turned the doorknob, entered, and stumbled upon a nude tiger woman, who was almost as surprised as he was. He was about to turn and run, perhaps ruining his pants along the way, but the tiger woman tackled him and was hitting him before he got the chance.

"What the hell!? What are you doing in my room, you pervert?!" She shouted, with fairly justified concern.

"I," he began, before a gut punch interrupted him. She kept hitting him while he was trying to speak, and after a while, she had gotten bored with beating him and lifted him up by his limp left ankle.

"You'd better tell me why you're in my room. And stop looking at me!" Yuki grunted, grabbing a towel to cover herself with her free hand and returning to human form.

"Can't talk, too scared," Sean sputtered. Yuki growled before unceremoniously dropping him on the floor. "Explain," she grunted.

"Uh, well, this is room 221B, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"Then I believe this is my room," he timidly answered, shakily holding up a bloodied scrap of paper. Yuki took it and started giggling.

"What?"

"You have the wrong building! This is the girl's dorm, silly! You want the building across the courtyard!"

"Oh. Ha. Ha ha," Sean laughed sarcastically, "Well, I wish I had known that beforehand. Or at least that you hadn't left me so bruised."

It was at this moment that a number of cuts on his body simply closed.

"Wow, that's neat. What are you? Some kind of plant?" Yuki tilted her head before ducking into her bedroom to put on pajamas.

"Uh, what are _yyyyou_?" Sean evaded.

"I'm a Rakshasi. My parents named me Yuki 'cause of my white fur," Yuki answered candidly. It should be noted here that "Yuki" means "snow".

"Huh. Well, I suppose I'll be getting to, uh, my dorm."

"Bye! Sorry about all that beating. At least I don't have claws yet! See you tomorrow!"

* * *

_As he limped across the courtyard, Sean's phone beeped._ He picked it up and noticed it had nearly perfect reception. He kept walking, and the reception disappeared. He stepped back into what turned out to be the single square foot of reception in the entire campus. He had an email from his mom, timed at about when he would have gone through the tunnel. He opened and read it.

_Dearest Sean,_

_I wish I could have told you sooner, but I was afraid you might have a stroke. Your father was not, in truth, my boyfriend Finn. It was a fairy. As in, a literal fairy. It was a dark night outside a pub in Dublin..._

Sean's mother, a brown-haired woman by the name of Maddie, in a flannel plaid shirt and torn blue-jeans (this was the nineties, after all). She was tipsy, and stumbled into an alley to relieve herself of an overabundance of stomach contents. After she had finished evacuating herself into a trashcan, she turned to see a handsome mane with a long, narrow face and a piercing gaze. His eyes held danger and thrills, and she felt herself walking towards him before she even realized he was there. "Hark," he said with smooth, seductive voice.

"Uh, h-urp-hey. Who're you?"

"That matters not, my flower. Let us adjourn to my room at the Inn," The man said, barely audible, but impossible not to hear, with some sort of foreign accent. In retrospect, this would have been a very strange man, but she was very drunk, and he very handsome. In a time just a bit shorter than made sense, they were in a well-furnished room, with warm, low lights coming from the strange candles set about the room. Maddie considered protesting, wanted to ask how they got here. There was no car, no walk, they were just there. She wanted to say "no," but before she could, the man offered her a drink. "Please, partake of it. It is the finest of your bubbling wines, from the land of 'cham-pag-neh'," he said, somewhat mangling the pronunciation of champagne. She somehow found it endearing, as if there was nothing wrong or bad about him. This terrified her, as true perfection is inhuman, alien, impossible. She took a thoughtless drink, and all the questions, all the objections, even the word "no" slipped away from her mind. The wine was unlike any other she had ever tasted, with aromas of pears, plums, blackberries and many smells and tastes she had never experienced. Her mind drifted away from her worries to a place of alien serenity as she disrobed and slid into bed with the strange man. After a night of passions, the man leaned over to Maddie. She had never experienced anyone such as him, and was in a state of true and perfect calm, when she heard, calmly, and quietly, "_My name is that of Oberon, king of the Fair Folk._" Maddie woke the next morning in her bed, in her rumpled clothes, next to her boyfriend, a cheerful-looking man by the name of Finn Quinn, Maddie's eventual husband, who would die in a bombing in Baghdad during Sean's childhood.

_...I always thought it had been a dream, until I got the letter inviting you here.__ I am so sorry that you never knew, but I hope you can learn from this school what I could never teach you._

Sean stood for minutes after reading that email, somewhere between dream and waking, before trudging absently to his correct room. He fell into his bed, fully dressed, and entered the blackness of sleep.

* * *

_After a night of fitful sleep, he was awoken by the bustle of the dorm room waking._ Sean rubbed his eyes, changed his clothes, and left his room for the dorm commons.

"Hey, Qui-eh, Quinn-ha, uh," A tall, handsome person with a mildly effeminate face and lavender eyes stumble on Sean's name.

"My name is Quinn-Hayashi. You may call me Sean," He said, still trying to get a handle on himself.

"Alright, Sean, you look awful. Bad night's sleep? My name's Hikaru, by the way."

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep. Bad, uh, dreams and the like," Sean muttered, trying to get by with as little interaction as possible. He stumbled past Hikaru, nearly running into the door before he opened it and walked outside.

_I'm...What's it called,_ Sean thought to himself, _Oh, feckit. I'll look it up later._ He walked unsteadily through the courtyard, stopped in "the spot" to send a text to his mother to tell him he was okay, and continued on to his homeroom. On the way, Yuki met up with him.

"Hello, Yuki. I don't wanna talk," Sean grunted.

"Why? Are you still mad about last night? You seem fine to me," Yuki looked him over.

Sean looked at himself, saw that most of his bruises were gone. He shrugged and pressed on.

"Sean, I'm really sorry, okay?"

"Yuki. I do not care right now," Sean rubbed his temples.

"What is it?" Yuki prodded.

"Not now!" Sean walked away and avoided Yuki until free period, where he was in the library, looking through large tomes. Eventually he came upon a leather-bound book titles "The Bestiary of Celtic Fairies." He leafed through the pages, learning about nixies, pixies, kelpies, merrows, brownies, and all sorts of fairies, before finally coming upon an entry entitled...

"Hey Sean! What's a 'changeling'?" Yuki said, making Sean bang his knees on the underside of the table in surprise.

"Ah! Damn it, Yuki!" Sean grunted in English.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Yuki pouted. Sean turned around and wanted to scowl, but she was just too darn cute.

"I, uh, that is, uh, alright. Just try not to do that anymore," Sean mumbled, studiously reading.

"So why are you reading about fairies? I thought those kinds of creatures lived in England?"

"Well, I seem to be one of them," Sean muttered.

"You're what?" Yuki didn't quite hear. Her ears in human form are sharp, but they're more clumsy and blunter than the predator's senses she's used to.

"I said I think I'm one of these, these uh, changelings. Half-fairies," Sean said. At that moment, a white-haired girl a few desks away perked up for a moment, before leaning back into her book surreptitiously.

_I've found him, uncle._ She thought.

_Good. Return him, and you shall have your reward._ Another thought entered the girl's mind.

"So how are you only finding out what you are now? Didn't your fairy parent tell you?" Yuki asked.

"Well," Sean said, "the Fair Folk are, well, jerks."

"Well, they don't sound so 'fair'," Yuki giggled.

_Damn, she beat me to a pulp last night! How is she so cute now!_ Sean thought, before the white-haired girl walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. He turned to see her. She was tall, and delicate-looking, like a porcelain sculpture. Her hair was a pale, silvery blonde, and her skin even paler. Her eyes were a vibrant emerald-green, almost glowing.

"Excuse me, is your name Sean?" the girl asked.

"Um, yes, why do you ask?" Sean raised an eyebrow.

"Good, wanted to make sure I had the right person," the girl said, before drawing back to hit him. Before the shot could connect, Yuki intercepted it, causing the girl's fist to puncture the table.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Yuki shouted, her teeth sharpening.

"Taking him home to uncle. You had best not interfere," the girl spat.

"Hey, hey, hey, I don't want to be taken anywhere," Sean raised his hands as he stood up.

"Not yours to decide, Sean!" the girl said, pulling her hand out of the table and backhanding Yuki with it in a single fluid motion. Yuki flew across the room. By the time she landed, the girl was already on Sean. Sean was doing everything he could to avoid the attacks, and was able to evade the worst of them. He was already bloodied by the time Yuki had transformed into her Youkai form and pounced on the girl.

_[before we continue, a bit of background on the Rakshasa:_ The Rakshasa is a tiger-like species of Youkai native to India with natural shape-shifting abilities. They are sometimes called "Asura."_]_

Yuki had jumped across the room, her powerful legs rocketing her forward into her prey. Talking was over. It was time for the hunt. The girl saw the fearsome beast on top of her, smiled, and said, "Well, aren't you a pretty kitty," before kicking her off and running after Sean, who had taken this opportunity to get the hell out of there, post-haste. Yuki got up and steadied it before lunging again. She had the advantage this time, attacking the girl from behind. The girl was knocked down, and Yuki started wailing away with her fists and teeth. The girl stood up slowly, Yuki still on her back, and reached over her shoulders, then throwing Yuki off. Yuki ended up landing on, and breaking, the desk under which Sean was cowering. Yuki shook herself off and stood up. She turned to Sean.

"Sean, she's too strong for me, I need help!"

"What can I do?" Sean said in a panicked squawk.

"I don't know, use fairy magic?" Yuki responded, getting ready for the girl's next attack.

"I don't know any magic! I'm just some nerd from Ulster!"

By the time Sean finished that sentence, the girl had already slammed into them like a linebacker ramming into a chinchilla, launching them through the library wall and into the courtyard. Sean looked at the girl.

"What the hell is she?" He pondered aloud in English.

"I am Yvaine, of the court of Oberon, king of the Faerie."

_[Fairies:_ Sometimes called the Fair Folk, Faerie, or Fey, the fairies of Celtic myth are ancient and terrifying beings far removed from those of modern children's tales._]_

Yuki got up, as did Sean. "Look, either make yourself useful, or run," Yuki shouted. Her voice had a tone of disdain, as if Sean wasn't really worth saving. Sean's fists clenched.

"My mother made me take Karate classes. I think I can do this."

Before they could react, Yvaine was behind them. "You thought wrong." She jabbed Yuki in the ribs, causing her to double over in pain. Yvaine continued to beat her, when Sean tried, and failed to help. His attempted strike was blocked, and he was flung several feat. When he landed, he thanked God he didn't land on the cast-iron fence spikes.

_Cast-iron!_ Sean sat up, remembering old fairy stories his mother told him, where the touch of iron burned fairies. He grabbed one of the small poles of the fence, and tried to wrestle it free. It was rusted, but still held tight. Yuki had managed to roll away, and regained her footing. The two warrior women brought battering blows to bear on each other, as Sean tried to kick the piece loose. after a few sound kicks (and a bit of cursing), he managed to break off a piece good enough to make a good club. He then charged. Yuki was trying to tear a piece out of Yvaine's surprisingly tough legs, when Sean shouted, "Yvaine! Can ya hold this for me!?" before hitting her square upside the head with the iron. She was sent reeling, not so much from the force, as from the iron in her face. Yuki pressed the advantage, jumped, and began throwing punishing blows at Yvaine, eventually taking Sean's iron bar and beating her with it.

"Yuki!"

Yuki kept swinging.

"Yuki, stop!" Sean pleaded, "You don't need to kill her!"

Yuki wouldn't listen. She had blood in her eyes, and wouldn't stop until her prey was dead and eaten.

"**Stop.**" A man in a pristine white robe stepped over, s Yuki began to simply float away from Yvaine. This robed man was the headmaster, Mikogami Tenmei. His robes seemed so alien, being so perfect and white among the destruction. As she drifted in the air, Yuki's eyes cleared, and she relaxed, returning to human form as she was gently placed on her feet.

"Headmaster!" Yuki bowed. Sean looked a little woozy, and Yvaine was motionless.

"Silence. I will not tolerate this any further. You have defended yourself, and now you will step back," the Headmaster said. Yvaine groaned and turned over, as Sean stumbled and fell over.

The Headmaster continued staring into Yuki's soul while Sean slowly swan out of consciousness.

* * *

_Sean awoke in the infirmary, with light bandages wrapped around his hands._ "Ugh," Sean groaned as he slowly sat up, "My head."

"Hold on, Mr. Quinn-Hayashi. You have some pretty bad iron burns on your hands," The nurse, a large, motherly woman, put her hand on his chest. Sean laid back down. He looked around to see Yuki and Yvaine standing by his bed.

"Sean! That was some impressive work with the iron," Yuki said, lightly punching him on the shoulder.

"Thanks for saving me from Yuki, Sean," Yvaine followed up.

"I, uh, didn't -"

"I mean, it was pretty mean to use iron on me, but I guess I was pretty out of line."

"I'm trying to tell -" Sean kept trying to explain.

"But it's fine, now. Oberon has disowned me, stripped me of my extra powers, and released me from my contract, so I don't have to take you back," Yvaine finally finished.

"I keep...Wait, take me back where?" Sean said, a confused expression on his face.

"I'd tell you, but if I do, I think I might explode, or something. Faerie Laws are confusing."

Sean was about to ask more questions, but realized it was probably futile, and shrugged. He then got up, straightened his tie, and walked out of the room with Yuki and Yvaine in tow. _Well,_ he thought, _this isn't the way I had hoped to attract girls. I guess my da was right when he said "women are complicated."_

Sean was cleared by the nurse, returned to his dorm, and sat on his bed. He got out a notebook and his favorite pen, a fountain pen his step-father gave him, and began writing.

_Dear Diary,_

_I guess I should start writing things down for now...even if only to leave some evidence._

He chuckled at his own dark humor, and wrote about his day, before turning off his light and going to sleep.


End file.
